Pupa
Previous: Infiltrate the Crater Base The Pupa is an unmanned attack vehicle based upon the Shagohod, and is the first of the AI weapons snake must face. Designed by Huey Emmerich, it's original function was to be part of the perfect nuclear deterrant, ending the possibility of a nuclear war. It moves using two treads for propulsion, and something like a air-cushion vehicle to support it's massive rear section. The AI pod, treads, and rear section are connected by something of a thorax, which appears to launch it's lightning rods, has two mounted machine guns, and a directed lightning gun of some sort. It also has four boosters attached to it's sides. 'Armaments:' The Pupa carries six machine guns, two on the thorax, and four on the rear section. It uses these to attack while driving on the circular walls surrounding the arena. It possesses a directed lightning gun of some sort, that may attack in a 160 degree radius, and, when fully charged, may fire off two shocks at once, which may make dodging difficult for some. Every so often, the Pupa will release "lightning rods" from it's back, which when fired upon with the lightning attack, creates a web of PAIN. The Pupa also may also use a tread to "Punch" at an enemy, or use the jets on it's back to charge or jump. 'Death avoidance:' The lightning attack can be dodged with a combat roll, or outrun if you keep moving, however, such makes aiming more difficult. When the Pupa charges, you can roll out of the way, or, thanks to the hover unit, you may lay down and allow it to pass over you. The machine guns it fires while on the walls may be avoided by simple running, as it fires at where you are and not where you are going. The lightning rods are a bit of a pain, but by destroying all the ones in about a fifteen foot radius, the lightning attack will miss you; sometimes destroying just one does the trick, blow one up on the outside edge and stand behind where it used to be. When it charges for a punch, you need to roll out of the way while it is about fifteen feet from you. This may or may not hit you if you dodge improperly. (Huey says to destroy the treads to stop this from happening, but the battle goes much faster if you just focus on the head.) The Pupa has the ability to jump, but never uses it while it is in the arena. It will leave the arena first, and then jump back in through the open ceiling. It is safest to hug the walls when this happens, or even better, to hide near one of the three ladders around the arena. 'Easy way to beat the Pupa:' Take the LAW missile, the RPG-7, and a supply marker; for your equipment, take as many food items as possible, Fulton is useless here, same goes for radars. For camo, I suggest naked (gives you a little bit more heroism) or the Battle uniform (if unlocked, gives a third main weapon and increased defense). I suggest camping in one of the entrances to the arena, the ones in which the pupa exits to prepare a jump, they provide moderate safety from the lightning rods, the lightning strike, the machine gun fire, and you won't get charged by it, if it exits out of the arena and you are in the way, just run to one of the sides, it will NOT hit you. There have been times where I have completely avoided lightning rod strikes, and electric charges combined with machinegun fire, the Pupa sometimes gets into a position where you are covered by the wall by the entrance, so it cannot hit you, but its hover unit is still easily a target, if this occurs, BLAST IT WITH ROCKETS In the entrances, if you put a supply marker just outside of the entrance, you can camp this area fairly easily, just keep pelting the pupa with RPG and LAW fire, eventually you will whittle down the pupas health bar and finish the match. The best part about this tactic? ITS COMPLETELY EXPLOITABLE, you can constantly do that method, and get parts for ZEKE, the strategy is fairly foolproof, so you can even attack certain parts of the pupa in order to get the parts you need for ZEKE, while being fairly safe in the process. As said above, to avoid most fire from the Pupa in this area, just run around, it will always aim at where you were, not where you are, allowing you to easily dodge the fire. Next: Travel to the Cloud Forest